Selected Recipes featuring Salad & Cooking Cream by Lansing Dairy Company 1937

Hi all! What a fun booklet this is! It was a gift from my sister. I love this lady's attractive Marcel wave. I knew it was from the thirties before I even looked. Oh, if only I looked this lovely in the kitchen. Heck, you could serve a plate of almonds floating in a sea of yellow cream with tomato sharks swimming around and who would be looking at the food. 

Let me inform you first off that "Salad & Cooking Cream" is a very fancy term for what we call sour cream. Good. I was afraid I might not be able to use this recipe booklet if it was something bizarre and discontinued.  

In the spirit of trying the strangest recipe I could find...

Buckle yourself in, it's going to be a bumpy ride... I present to you:

Liver in Soured Cream

1 1/2 pounds liver, unsliced (I couldn't find unsliced, I mean, really! So I used sliced)
1/4 pound salt pork
1 cup soured cream
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 medium onion
1 teaspoon salt

Use either beef or pork liver (I used beef). Place in casserole. Dice salt pork and insert the pieces into the top surface of the liver. (Or do as I did and line them up like little tin soldiers on top of the liver. Honestly, I was tempted to take a picture of this bloody monstrosity with its little dead pork soldiers lined up in their fatal formation and post one of those, "NAILED IT" photos, but I just couldn't.) Arrange onion over this, add salt and pepper. Pour over this the soured cream and bake until tender  in moderate oven. The liquid remaining in pan may be mixed with flour and milk and served as gravy. (I didn't bother with this.)
I set the oven at 350 degrees and cooked for 1/2 hour. At this point it was still quite bloody. I put it in for 15 more minutes and that seemed to do the trick.
Let me tell you, this dish is not going to win any awards for presentation  But...God help me...I liked it. Perhaps I should have mentioned beforehand, but I am a real liver fan. I know...I'm sick. But seriously, if you are a liver lover like myself this is a very tasty dish to make when the rest of the family is on vacation and no one will see you consuming it. Or..if you live in a cave and can hide in a corner and eat it, that will work too. Happy consuming, my fellow golems.

Holey cheese, you guys. This is THE most disgusting looking thing I have ever tried to reheat. I must be honest with you when I say it looks like someone used my casserole dish as an emesis basin. Nevertheless, I was stout-hearted and pushed through. Tasted swell. Plus, found a new use for my sleep-mask (blinder).

This next recipe also sounds kind of strange, but I love pie and have never had anything that sounded like:

Soured Cream Honey Pie

3 eggs, separated
1/2 cup honey
2 Tablespoons flour
1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon (according to taste)
1 cup soured cream
1/4 cu sugar for meringue
1 baked pie shell

Separate the eggs and beat the yolks. Add the honey, which has been blended with the flour and cinnamon. Stir in the soured cream. Raisins or chopped dates may be added, if you like them. Cook in a double boiler until thick. Pour the filling into a baked pie shell. Beat the egg whites until a stiff froth is formed. Add 1/4 cup of sugar, beating until stiff. Spread this fluffy topping over the pie and brown quickly in slow oven (Google says 300 degrees, if you were wondering). 

I kept putting off making this recipe because of the meringue. My meringues turn out about 95% of the time.  It's that remaining 5% that makes me hesitant. Anyway, I finally sucked it up and gathered my ingredients. 
The recipe was very easy to put together; used mostly ingredients I already had on hand, and... turned out great. Even my meringue was beautiful. Yea! 
The resulting pie has a kind of custard-y texture and a flavor reminiscent of a very mild pumpkin pie (the cinnamon, I guess).
Oh, by the way, regarding the meringue: I don't know if I have a lousy oven or what, but it did not brown exactly "quickly". I did keep a constant eye on it to make sure I didn't end up with a hard brown crust. I took it out the minute it had a pale golden-brown appearance... and it was just right.
I did not add raisins or dates, though I'm sure that would have been just dandy.

So... two yummy recipes, probably some more good ones in here too. Thanks to my sis!